


Four Figures, Unlike Gods in Every Way But One

by madeoftime



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 02:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11819025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madeoftime/pseuds/madeoftime
Summary: Four figures sit at a table and create a world.It goes poorly, as you can imagine.





	Four Figures, Unlike Gods in Every Way But One

Four figures sit around a table.  
The Ram speaks, spinning a tale for the others to follow, and occasionally, twist into their own stories.  
She tells of beasts and caves, of battlements and curses. Great puzzles for the others to devise a solution.  
The Bull listens most intently, deeply entranced by the fantastical adventure. But his attention is still divided...  
Every twitch of the Spider's limbs makes the Bull flinch in fear. He may be strong of heart, but her power over him is unquestionable. The Ram squints her yellow eyes at the spider knowingly.  
In the story, no- it's more akin a game, she punishes the Spider for her creulty. Fudging numbers here or there. Just a stroke of bad luck, she would insist.  
The Ram paid even more attention to the Dragon. It wasn't a critical gaze, though; it was a sad admiration. Her eyes would skirt the Dragon's voluptuous form whenever she was distracted by the game. The Dragon's teeth were always visible, and the Ram took notice of their sharpness. Yet they weren't fierce teeth. Her tongue was biting, but not poisonous. She never lashed out to hurt, only to tease, or, in occasion, defend herself.  
The Dragon took no notice of the ram's adoration. In fact, it would be better to say she toook no notice of anyone except the Spider. She was drunk on the Spider's sleek, slender legs, hungry for the spider's rare approval. She was infatuated in the worst way, completely unwilling to admit the Spider's flaws. She ignored the Bull's cowering, ignored the Spider's venom coursing through her own veins, ignored the Ram's silent, begging eyes, pleading her to let go of her dependency on the Spider, to realize she had friends who would support her if only........ But it didn't matter to her. She was drowning in infatuation, and, more importantly, her fear of being abandoned. Her blind red eyes saw only the Spider.  
The Spider was toxic, venom, poison in every respect of the words. Her very presence was harmful to those around her. To herself, even. Even moreso was her fictional persona, whom she strives to match in cunning and sinister power. Spinnerette, she was called. A devilish pirate who brought envy to the sea.  
The Dragon feasted on her venom, delighting in the false sense of belonging. This only made her fictional counterpart more ironic. The Dragon's glare, hot with a fury she didn't know she held, was reflected in the role of Redglare. Spinnerette's nemesis, sworn to bring her down once and for all, to rid the world of her toxicity.  
The Bull, too, fantasized of defeating the spider - that is, Spinnerette. His character, Pupa, was a young fairy boy who took orders from no soul but his own. He danced in the stars by night and defeated pirates by the shipload by day.  
The Ram was no single influence on the world of the game. Instead, she was the world itself. She had control over the fabric of existence itself. Except, of course, for what the Spider wrested control of from her.  
The Ram crafted a world that punished the wicked and rewarded the pure, but the Spider wouldn't have it. She twisted the world, pushed it on its side, bent it to her will like she did the Bull and the Dragon. In the end, the more she tried to oppose her, the more the Ram became the Spider's slave.

 

Spinnerrette was surrounded for the last time. To the North, shore. To the East, shore. To the West, Pupa Pan and his band. To the South, The Kingdom's largest fleet.  
And standing directly in front of Spinnerrette, Redglare, noose in one hand, saber in the other.  
"It's over, pirate. Drop your weapon."  
"If you think your blade is faster than my bullet, be my guest." She was bluffing. The gun wasn't even loaded. It didn't show in her eyes, but Redglare was blind anyways.  
"If you kill me, your death will be much worse than hanging, I assure you." The woman's nose twitched. "You smell that sea?"  
"Of course I do."  
"How many people have you drowned in it? How many bodies have you left floating, to be fed upon by the birds?"  
"Not enough, clearly."  
"You can't even pretend to repent, can you?"  
"It wouldn't shut you up either way." That got a grimace out of Redglare.  
"Drop your pistol now, or I'll cut your arm off."  
"Wouldn't be the first time." She took a step back.  
"Don't move!" Redglare's lower lip trembled, with fear, fury, or both, the pirate wasn't sure. "If you take another step, this ship will be sunk before your foot hits the deck. Drop the weapon, now."  
Spinnerrette smirked. "As you wish." She let the flintlock pistol fall, bracing herself. Most people describe time slowing down in tense, life-threatening situations. For Spinnerrette, it was almost the opposite. Time splintered into six-second chunks, demanding her undivided attention to detail. If she missed one visual cue, or misjudged her positioning, she was doomed.  
The pistol left her hands, and instantly the sea exploded. She heard Redglare cry out in pain, watched her swing her saber in a desperate attempt to finish the pirate off. She missed by a milimeter. Spinnerrette felt a million hot needles pierce her flesh as she was flung into the air. Debris flew every which way. Some of it was her leg.  
Gunpowder was a dangerous substance to ship. Even moreso to have spilt on the deck of your vessel. But Lady Luck was ever on Spinnerrette's side. A good pirate knows exactly how to tip the scales in her favor. Like stepping back so the spilt gunpowder was at her feet. Like cocking an empty gun before dropping it onto the ground, at just the right angle. Like blowing up her own ship to avoid death, if even only for a matter of minutes.  
If things went according to plan, though, she would survive this.

 

"You can't survive that!" The Ram was red in the face already.  
"I rolled a twenty!"  
"So what? You blew up your own legs!"  
The Dragon cackled, licking her lips. "But if she dies, then the game is over! My quest will be for nothing!"  
"Why are you always trying to kill me off? Huh?" The Spider crossed her arms.  
"Because you're the BAD GUY!" The Ram was fuming. "You kill all the good characters and you ruin all my stories! Every time you play, you act like you're the DM! But you're not! I am!"  
The Bull stammered nervously, but nobody could hear his quiet pleas.  
"Well maybe I'm making them BETTER stories! Did you think of that? Maybe the characters die because they're WEAK, and BORING! Maybe I _SHOULD_ be the DM!" Her long, spindly arms reached over the table in an attempt to take the book from the Ram's hands.  
"No!" The Ram's arms curl around the book protectively.  
The Dragon looks concerned, as if only just now realizing things have gotten out of hand again. "Hey, Vriska, you don't have to-"  
"Shut up, Terezi." She tries to pry the Ram's hands from the thick volume unsuccessfuly. "She's a bad DM anyways, it's someone else's turn."  
"It's my book, and you can't have it!" The Ram's eyes are watery.  
The Bull retreats into his chair, tucking his head in to avoid the Spider's jutting elbows. It didn't do him much good, because a moment later the Spider tackles the Ram, knocking his chair on its side in the process.  
"Tavros!" The Ram shouts, dropping the book to help her friend. The Spider stands, holding the book over her head triumphantly.  
The Bull winces as the Ram helps him up. One of his chair's wheels has been dented severely, so she sets him in her own chair, immobilizing him for the time being.  
"Vriska! Give me back my book and get out of my hive!" The Ram crosses her arms angrily.  
The Dragon bites her lip. "Vris..."  
"Yeah, fine, fuck it. Whatever. This game was getting boring anyways." She tosses the book at the Ram's head, hitting her sharply in the eye. She cries out in pain. The Spider starts to walk to the door, then stops to glare at the Dragon. "Well? Are you coming?"  
The Dragon faces the others for a moment. The Bull has an arm around the Ram, who is crying and covering her eye with both hands. There's no blood seeping between her fingers, but it still seems pretty bad. The Bull has a huge bruise on his shoulder, and a welt on his head from the fall he took. The Dragon winces, hesitating. "Y-yeah, of course." She follows the Spider to the door, leaning back in for a moment to quietly say, "sorry Aradia. See you... later, I hope." She closes the door softly.


End file.
